Step-by-step guide to importing a Word document into Lawmaker

A detailed, step-by-step guide to importing a Word document and fixing any issues that may arise.

Step 1: Prepare your Word document for import

1. Ensure the document you want to import is saved as a Word document with a .docx extension to its filename. If it is not, then convert it into a DOCX file - see Convert an .odt or .doc file to .docx format before importing.

2. If the document contains amendments to enactments of different types, add codes to the inserted text to help ensure they are imported correctly - see Importing textual amendments (quoted text and structures) and adding codes.

3. Check for any common pitfalls and fix/remove as required - see Common pitfalls below.

4. Check for any known limitations and fix/modify as required - see Notes and limitations

5. Save and close your document before selecting it for import.

Step 2: Open Lawmaker and import the document

1. In Lawmaker, navigate to the project you want to upload the document into.

2. On the Project tab, select Document Actions > Import from Word.

3. In the dialog box, select or specify the folder you want to upload the document into, along with a unique version description and browse to the Word document you want to upload.

4. Click Import and wait for Lawmaker to import your document.

Step 3: Check your document for import issues

1. Open the document in the Editor.

2. Check the structure view to see how many sections and schedules were imported and compare to the word document to prepare yourself on how successful the import was.

3. Use the Document Check right-hand panel to spot and fix any known import issues. (See the section below on How to check and fix import issues.)

4. Generate a PDF and check for any style and formatting issues that might point to an incorrectly converted provision. Selecting line numbering sometimes highlights where an import issue might have crept in as sometimes these can break line numbering.

Step 4: Correct the Lawmaker document, or fix the Word document

1. Depending on how many issues there are and the ramifications of these issues, it might be simplest to fix or modify the Word version and re-import the Word document.

2. If the fixes aren’t too difficult or prolific, you might prefer to fix any import issues directly in the Lawmaker document.

How to check and fix import issues

Once you have successfully imported your document from Word, you should open the document in the Editor and check that everything is as it should be.

Firstly, check the Document Check right-hand panel for any obvious issues that Lawmaker encountered. The following table lists out the known import issues that Lawmaker has flagged for your attention.

Document check warning	Explanation	How to fix the issue
	Lawmaker was unable to identify what type of provision this content was intended to be so has inserted it as another sentence within the provision before it.	Decide what the provision should have been and use the insert menu to insert the correct provision Steps to insert the correct provision Decide what the provisions should have been Highlight and cut the text inside this temporary text element Delete the empty text element (selecting it using the breadcrumb) using the backspace or delete key on your keyboard or right click > Delete Element With your cursor in the provision before, click Enter to view the insert menu Select the correct provision and paste the content into the newly inserted provision using Ctrl+V If the provision should be treated as another paragraph of the provision before it, you can remove the document check warning. Steps to remove the doc check warning Place your cursor in the additional paragraph View the Attribute right-hand panel Click on the class attribute and click on the delete icon. This will remove the class attribute on the additional paragraph and thereby remove the document check warning Use the quick fix links in the document check card to: Remove flag from text once you’ve corrected the issue (or if there was nothing to fix) and this will get rid of the document check warning; or Delete unrecognised text which will remove the whole provision from the document.
	If you provided a quoted structure code that didn’t match any of Lawmaker’s approved codes, a document check warning will appear.	Check what the quoted structure should have been. How to update the quoted structures If the provisions inside the quoted structure were paragraph level or below (i.e. paragraph (a)) and the quoted structure should have been treated as a schedule: update the ukl:context in the Attribute r-hand panel to say “schedule” If the provisions inside the quoted structure were paragraph level or below (i.e. paragraph (a)) and the document being amended wasn’t an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly, change the ukl:docName from ‘nia’ to the correct docName code listed Step-by-step guide to importing a Word document into Lawmaker | Document-type-codes If the provisions inside the quoted structure were higher level than paragraphs and the amendments were being made to a schedule, you will need to change the ukl:context attribute as described in point 1 above, but also insert the correct elements and copy across the content e.g. subsections would be need to be inserted as schedule sub-paragraphs. If the provisions inside the quoted structure were higher levels than paragraphs and the document type being amended wasn’t an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly then you need to update the ukl:docName attribute (as described in point 2 above) but also insert the correct provision type (e.g. articles instead of sections) and copy the content from the incorrect provisions. Alternatively, correct the quoted structure code in your word document and reimport it again. Use the quick fix link in the document check card to remove flag from the quoted structure once you’ve fixed the issue or determined there was nothing to fix. This will remove the document check warning.

The other likely issues could be—

The other likely issues could be—

Common pitfalls

The following scenarios were detected during testing of this new feature and can cause issues or unintended outcomes when a document is imported. To ensure your document doesn’t succumb to these pitfalls, run cursory checks before importing your document to guarantee the greatest chances of success:

1. Uneven number of quote marks: in the test documents we saw some definitions being inserted into enacted legislation with only one set of double quotes at the start. There should be 2 sets of double quotes at the start of a definition which is the starting element within inserted text. One is used to indicate that it is being inserted into enacted legislation and the other is used to indicate the first bit of text is a defined term in the definition. but they were missing the start quote for the inserted text. They had the start quote When inserting definitions as inserted text, you will need 2 sets of start quotes: one is used to identify that it is inserted text and one is used to identify that it is a definition.

2. Uneven quote marks: if you have an accidental quote mark appear, this can cause issues with the logic to identify the start and end of quoted structures. Make sure you have an even number of quote marks around definitions and inserted text and structures.

3. Missing em-dash or full-stop in numbers: the logic behind the import operation relies heavily on the correct format for numbers and headings in order to work out what the appropriate provision should be. If your import resulted in strangely structured provisions, check the formatting in the Word document around the location where the error creeps in.

4. Missing space between number and heading: if the Lawmaker document hasn’t recognised a provision, double check there is a space between the number and heading in the Word document. Without a space, Lawmaker will not know this is a particular provision as opposed to text.

5. Table of contents in SI/WSI: Lawmaker ignores tables of contents (as they are easy to insert from within Lawmaker). However, sometimes the content can confuse the parsing logic and you will potentially get better results if you (carefully) delete the table of contents from your SI document.

6. Maximum upload limit: Lawmaker has an upload limit set so as not to impact performance. If you see an error message informing you the upload limit has been exceeded, you should divide up your document into smaller chunks to import and reassemble once uploaded into Lawmaker. E.g. separating by parts or schedules.

7. Unhandled LISTNUM field code: MS Word uses LISTNUM field codes to handle automatic numbering of provisions in Word documents. Numbers of this kind are not stored as text which means Lawmaker has to work out the number of provisions using this field. In most cases, this is fine. However, sometimes the LISTNUM field codes can be broken and Lawmaker will have to try and deduce what the number should have been and might get this wrong in the imported document. It is therefore important to check the numbering in your document once it has been imported (particularly for documents using the old SI template where this is common).

8. Quoted text included in the indented quoted structure: if you are inserting some text into enacted legislation before inserting new provisions, the text should appear in the opening provision before the inserted new provisions. In a few documents, the inserted text was contained in the indented paragraph containing the inserted provisions which is not recognised by Lawmaker e.g.

   

   which should have been written as—